Reading to the Rat; Or, Interception:

ORIGIN Latin intercipere ‘catch between’

Misspelled as interseption in my brainstorming bag

I’m caught between finishing DQ and not finishing DQ. DQ and Sancho have left the Duke and Duchess’s place and are (despite the skinny few pages left in the book) having an accelerated series of fabulous adventures – one right after another. Last night I read Chapter LXII “The Adventure of the Enchanted Head; with other childish matters which cannot be omitted”. I love enchanted heads in novels and I thought immediately about the evil floating helmet in The Castle of Otranto (a favourite book of mine):

The first thing that struck Manfred’s eyes was a group of his servants endeavouring to raise something that appeared to him a mountain of sable plumes. He gazed without believing his sight. “What are ye doing?” cried Manfred, wrathfully. “Where is my son?”

A volley of voices replied, “Oh! my lord! the prince! the prince! the helmet! the helmet!”

Shocked with these lamentable sounds, and dreading he knew not what, he advanced hastily—but, what a sight for a father’s eyes!—he beheld his child dashed to pieces, and almost buried under an enormous helmet, a hundred times more large than any casque ever made for human being, and shaded with a proportionable quantity of black feathers.

I’m thinking about what novel I will read next. I’m thinking about reading Ivanhoe by Walter Scott. I have no real reason for reading it, it just occurred to me that I could read it. I saw a new Dover edition (cheap) at the bookstore. Maybe its cheap availability is what made me think about it. Or maybe it’s nostalgia. My brother and I used to watch the Ivanhoe TV show when we were kids and I can still remember part of the theme song and how the tiled floor felt against my stomach (I often lay on the floor – that tile is a very visceral part of my early years, I think).

Or, I could read the other book that I haven't got yet. I put a hold on a novel at the public library quite a while ago but I haven’t heard anything. Holds are weird in that way. It can take months to get stuff. The way the book interrupts your life and your consciousness is sometimes very interesting and surprising. I’m kind of eager to read this book even though I can’t remember the title or author. It was recommended by my friend Mike who has often been right before.

When it takes a long time to get a book, it’s usually because it’s popular. Once you get it you know that there are no renewals. You have to get on with the reading even if you're not ready or you don't think you have the time. I remember when we got Kenneth Oppel’s Airborn, we read it out loud - one chapter every night because we knew that everyone wouldn’t get a chance to read it in the three-week loan period. It just wouldn’t happen. It was a nice experience to read the book aloud. It was just at the time when we first got our rat, Gwendolyn. It seemed to us that she liked the reading too – or, at least, she was attentive and quiet while we were reading. When the book was finished and the normal evening routine (of everyone just silently going their separate ways) resumed, she actually seemed more agitated and ran around her cage a lot more. This could all be projection of course because rats are more active at night generally but we liked to think that she liked hearing Airborn being read – rats are very social creatures after all…

P.S. I think that I have to read Ivanhoe now because I found this quote when I was searching the online version of the book - testing the waters so to speak. It really made my day to read that Sir Walter Scott is ranked second to God on the best authors list:

I love this book more then any book I've read (besides the bible). Sir Walter Scott is the wisest book writer that I've ever known(besides God). The plot was awsome. I never thought that the BK (Black Knight) was Richard the BK (Big King). I really liked Wamba, I even wrote an essay about Wamba called "Not only a Jester: A Wamba Story. Every body thought he was just a stupid Jester and they didnt know that behind the jokes there was a brave and wise hero. If someone made a play about Ivanhoe that would be cool. This is the Greatest book ever.